


Flash Fics, Volume 2

by TJ_Dragonblade



Series: Sentences, Drabbles, Snippets and Flashfic [5]
Category: Naruto, Saiyuki, Saiyuki Gaiden
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-04
Updated: 2012-10-04
Packaged: 2017-11-15 15:06:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/528581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TJ_Dragonblade/pseuds/TJ_Dragonblade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of five short snippets written for a fic-tropes meme.  The longest clocks in at around 940 words.  The shortest is just over 60.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flash Fics, Volume 2

**Yamato/Sai, bodyswap**  
Drafted: 9/19/12  
~~~***~~~  
"Yamato," Sai says, tentatively, and Yamato finds it is _weird. As. Hell_. to stare across at his own face wearing Sai's carefully-crafted expressions, to hear his own voice speaking with Sai's mild inflections. He hopes to god Sai's not about to suggest they have sex, because there is absolutely no way he can deal with the idea of making love to his own body while he's in Sai's.

Sai doesn't say anything further, though, just reaches up to adjust the faceguard for the third time in half as many minutes; he's clearly unused to its weight and presence and the fact that he's fidgeting with it, however slightly, betrays his unease with their situation despite his placid demeanor. Yamato makes a huge effort to put aside his own quiet panic and moves to sit next to Sai.

"Weird, isn't it," he says, Sai's voice sounding strange from inside his head like this, and catches Sai's quick nod from the corner of his eye. He'd normally put an arm around Sai's shoulders, pull him sideways in a comforting half-embrace, but he's currently shorter than Sai and it would be more awkward than helpful just now, so he settles a warm hand on Sai's leg--which is technically still his own leg, but that's just too confusing--instead. "The hokage and her team're working to reverse the jutsu," he offers, trying his best for a reassuring tone. 

"Yes." Sai gives another short nod.

"They're the best at what they do--they'll figure it out," he says, forcing his voice ( _Sai's voice_ ) to sound confident and not desperate. 

"Yes," Sai says again, "but until they do, we are not very well equipped to defend ourselves. Your body is larger than mine; the height and weight differences will affect my taijutsu skills and I don't think I can use my drawing techniques with your chakra."

That...is actually a very good point; Yamato isn't any kind of expert in technical chakra mechanics but it makes sense that a molding of one's physical and spritual energy will not be the same when one's spirit is unexpectedly forced to work with a different physical body. He's also a little chagrined that he hadn't thought of how this would affect his fighting ability; odds are slim that they'll actually come under attack here in the village while their body-swap gets sorted out, but caution and preparedness are cornerstones of the shinobi trade. Clearly Sai has focused on this very practical problem to keep himself grounded in the face of their unsettlingly-odd circumstances, and it gives Yamato an inexplicable little surge of pride in him.

"We can experiment tomorrow, figure out exactly how our abilities are affected," Yamato says thoughtfully, "and run through some taijutsu training to start adapting to the physical changes. That will at least put us a little better off than we are now."

"Agreed." There's a pause, then Sai looks down at his ( _Yamato's_ ) hands and says, considerably brighter: "Do you think you can teach me to use your mokuton?"

=====  
 **Yamato/Sai, amnesia**  
Drafted: 9/19/12  
~~~***~~~  
Sai had never thought that emotional pain could hurt worse than physical injury--he grew up learning to block his emotions, is still a master at partitioning them off when necessary--but when Yamato gives him a stranger's smile in response to Sai's warm greeting and politely asks "Do I know you?", it feels like a fist has plunged clean through his chest.

=====  
 **Saiyuki, accidental baby acquisition**  
Drafted: 9/19/12  
~~~***~~~  
Jeep studies the leathery little egg carefully, hopping around to inspect it from all angles thoroughly before cautiously nosing at it. He's very sure it's a dragon egg--it smells familiar in a way he can't precisely explain--and his instincts say it's due to hatch soon; there's no sign of the egg-layer, however, no sign that anyone but Jeep has been here for days. He can't simply leave it; hatchlings will not survive their first weeks without the protection and guidance of a parent.

Jeep has never encountered another dragon as far back as his memory goes; it makes him doubly-determined that this little one should not die.

He flutters into the air and gently picks up the egg in both sets of talons, making sure it's securely gripped before flapping hard up into the sky, wheeling around and winging back toward the camp where he left the others. He's aware that he lacks the proper knowledge to raise a hatchling, but he knows he can count on Hakkai's common sense and assistance at the very least. Sanzo will complain of the addition to their party, he has no doubt, but he's also certain that Hakkai will take his side, and Hakkai _always_ wins.

=====  
 **Saiyuki, truth or dare**  
Drafted: 9/19/12  
~~~***~~~  
"I pick...Sanzo!" Goku pointed a gleeful finger directly at him. "Truth or dare?"

"Pass." Sanzo twisted his pinky in his ear and tried to ignore the disproportionately crestfallen look on Goku's face.

"But...ya can't! That's not how it's played!"

Gojyo snorted. "Guess Sanzo-sama's playing 'Truth, dare, or pass', kid."

"I never _said_ I'd play at all." This idiot game was Gojyo's idea; Sanzo wanted no part of it.

"Now, Sanzo," Hakkai said, butting in _exactly_ the way Sanzo didn't need him doing, "there's no harm in playing along, is there? We can't go any further through these woods until daybreak and none of us are ready to turn in yet. It will help to pass the time if we all--" he stressed the word just barely, just enough "--participate."

"...Ch'." He wanted to brush Hakkai off, but Sanzo hadn't survived this long by being stupid. He risked a glance at Hakkai; the man was sitting on the other side of the fire with Jeep in his lap, absently petting the drowsing dragon, but there was an edge to his cheerful smile that said Sanzo _would_ regret it if he continued to be uncooperative.

Which meant he was left with one question. Truth or dare--his privacy or his dignity; which did he value more?

"...Dare."

=====  
 **Goujun/Tenpou, telepathy**  
Drafted: 9/20/12 - 9/25/12   
~~~***~~~  
"So, then," Tenpou begins normally, but finishes silently in demonstration, _unexpected onset of telepathy is a normal occurence among dragons?_

"Only in our oldest histories," Goujun answers, speaking aloud, unable to simply accept this jarring development so easily as Tenpou appears to. "I had thought it a legend, a folktale, a mere fable. I...did not expect--" It's difficult to articulate the turmoil in which he finds himself. He is a very private person, preferring to carefully control what parts of himself he allows any others to see; Tenpou...Tenpou is very dear to him, but Tenpou is no great respecter of privacy.

"Ah, well. I suppose my curiousity _does_ seem a bit nosy, at times," Tenpou says, and Goujun is both frustrated and chagrined that Tenpou (of course!) heard that as well. He does _not_ want Tenpou poking about among his private thoughts and feelings; no one should be that open, that exposed, that _vulnerable_ \--

"I'm not poking, Sir; you're projecting."

"I assure you, it's not intentional."

Tenpou sighs and tilts his head, eyes questioning. _Can you not hear my private thoughts, as well? Am I not just as vulnerable as you?_

It's true, Goujun realizes, of course it's true: the bond goes both ways. He can 'hear' Tenpou trying to control and corral his thoughts, but there are things slipping past all the same; Tenpou is suppressing a quiet panic at the idea of having everything _shared_ between them this way.

That calm, controlled distress in his subordinate, his lover, brings Goujun's instinct to guide-protect-reassure to the fore despite his own disquiet. "It is not meant to be a curse," he offers, trying to focus his mind in an orderly fashion so that whatever Tenpou gleans from it will at least be dignified. "The legends--they say--" He still finds it difficult to put into words, because it betrays his greatest weakness, but his thoughts tumble ahead even when his tongue stops, recalling the ancient lore he had read as a child. _The thought-bond happens only rarely, only between the most closely-bonded of pairs, the most deeply-attached of lovers. It facilitates their oneness of spirit. It seals their bond for eternity, through every life they may live._

"...So, then." Tenpou blinks, and his thought-voice picks up the conversation. _I am your life-mate, your--_ and Goujun can clearly detect the quirk of Tenpou's amusement _\--'soulmate'?_ Underneath the amusement at the term, Tenpou is both pleased and frightened by the idea, and Goujun can't--doesn't know how to--filter or hold back the tide of truth rising to spill through their new telepathic link.

_Yes--_ It's the only clear word; the rest is a jumbled rush of fierce emotion. Tenpou is _his_ , is more important--dear--precious to him than anyone, anything; he would kill for Tenpou, die for Tenpou, live for Tenpou, and it frightens him to feel this way. Bonds this deep make one vulnerable, amount to weakness, liability; in court, in politics, it is unwise in the extreme to allow oneself this level of attachment. There are always those who will use it against one, and Goujun is well aware that many in Tenkai resent the position he holds, find him unsuitable for it, find him and his nature unseemly--objectionable--no matter how strictly he adheres to Kami ways while duty dictates that he dwell among them. He should never have allowed himself this involvement with Tenpou, but it has always felt beyond his control and now clearly it is too late; if the thought-bond has happened there can never be any turning back--

_\--I see--_ Tenpou's words lance through the chaotic tumble of Goujun's mind, and Tenpou's thoughts come sliding helplessly after--how non-attachment is the Kami way but Tenpou is hardly like the rest--Tenpou's concern that their involvement endangers Goujun--how Goujun and his distinctly un-kami personality breathe interest, meaning into an otherwise tedious existence--and then, very clearly, _I cannot bear the thought of being without him--_

"Tenpou," Goujun says, aloud, and it is almost jarring to break the outer silence. The thought-bond is terribly intimate; glimpsing these private inner workings of his young Kami has left Goujun somewhat shaken--because Tenpou never displays any hint of vulnerability or raw emotion this way--and yet warmly pleased all the same to _feel_ how deeply he matters to Tenpou.

"Do you regret being with me?" Tenpou asks then, straightforward and serious.

He doesn't have to ponder that at all. " _No_ ," he asserts, forcefully; it may be a foolish and inadvisable risk but even should time wind backward and afford him the chance to ride a different wind regarding Tenpou, he knows he would heed the urgings of his soul all over again. 

_Then I suggest we learn to 'block and knock', and make the best of this,_ Tenpou projects, determined bemusement overriding the unsettled emotions deeper down. _With a bit more control, it might even be fun._

Goujun blinks. _Fun?_ Already, conversing without speaking has begun to feel somewhat natural.

Tenpou adjusts his glasses primly, but there's a quirk of mischief in his smile, in the cant of his thoughts. "Just imagine the private conversations we can have during those stuffy meetings we suffer through each month," he sighs, with transparently-false innocence, and Goujun realizes--with equal parts foreboding and anticipation--that _nothing_ will ever be quite the same again.

~*~  
In another life, at another time, a young white dragon who is sometimes a jeep comes under the care of a youkai who used to be human and neither of them thinks it the least bit odd that somehow they can communicate, can understand one another, without the slightest difficulty.


End file.
